wmmx 


THE  NORMAL 

School  Quarterly 


Striis  2 


April,  1904 


Number  10 


Manual  Training  in  the 
H    H     Schools 


By 


WILLIAM  T'.,  BAWDEN, 


J  ] 

1  I 


Entered   August    18,   190a,   Normal,  Illinois,  as   second    class    matter, 
under  Act  of  Congress  of  July  16,   1894 

PUB  LI  SHE  D     BY     THE     ILLINOI  S     S  T  ATE 
NORMAL     UNIVERSITY,     NORMAL,     ILLINOIS 


N.  B.— Will  persons  receiving  this  Quarterly  p lease  give 
prompt  notice  of  any  change  of  address? 


f 


JL<brv3" 


NORMAL  SCHOOL  QUARTERLY 


Published    by  the  Illinois  State  Normal  University,  Normal,  Illinois 

Series  2  APRIL,  1904  No.  10 

- 

DEC  9- 1.8 
Manual  Training  in  the  Schools. 


It  is  the  purpose  of  this  article  to  discuss  briefly  the  nature  of 
manual  training,  to  state  some  of  the  reasons  why  it  should  be 
given  a  place  in  the  course  of  study,  and  to  set  forth  the  general 
plan  upon  which  it  should  be  conducted. 

MANUAL  TRAINING  DEFINED. 

"Manual  training  is  any  form  of  constructive  work  that  serves 
to  develop  the  power  of  the  pupil  thru  spontaneous  and  intelligent 
self -activity."  (Definition  adopted  by  the  Eastern  Manual  Train- 
ing Teachers'  Association.) 

The  aim  of  the  instruction,  as  indicated  in  this  definition,  is 
the  development  of  power  in  the  individual.  By  power  is  here 
meant  not  simply  power  in  the  sense  of  skill  in  the  handling  of 
tools,  but  ability  to  use  the  hand  as  an  agent  of  the  mind  in  the 
expression  of  thought.  We  may  have  training  of  the  hand  with- 
out any  tools  at  all,  as  in  some  forms  of  basketry,  weaving,  model- 
ing, etc.;  or  we  may  have  training  that  involves  a  considerable 
variety  of  tools,  as  in  bench  work.  But  whatever  the  form  of  work 
selected  the  special  technical  skill  that  results  from  its  use  is  only 
of  subsidiary  value  and  by  no  means  constitutes  the  chief  aim. 
The  reason  why  manual  training  is  put  into  our  schools  is  because 
it  contributes  to  the  complete  and  rounded  development  of  the 


The  Normal  School  Quarterly. 


individual;  it  aims  to  develop,  first,  thought  power  and  to  give 
play  to  the  creative  instinct;  second,  control  of  the  physical  or- 
ganism by  the  mind;  and,  third,  skill  in  the  use  of  that  organism 
in  the  expression  of  thought. 

The  secondary  importance  of  mere  skill  may  be  brought  out 
by  a  comparison  of  manual  training  with  trade  instruction.  The 
apprentice  learning  a  trade  has  as  a  goal  set  before  him  the  attain- 
ment of  ability  to  perform  certain  tool-operations  with  sufficient 
accuracy  to  satisfy  the  high  standards  of  commercial  utility  and 
finish,  and  at  a  rate  of  speed  that  will  earn  him  a  livelihood  in  com- 
petition with  other  workmen.  When  a  new  piece  of  work  is  set 
before  him  he  is  usually  kept  at  it  until  he  masters  it ;  he  must  per- 
form the  same  operations  and  go  thru  the  same  movements  over 
and  over  again  until  he  acquires  the  necessary  accuracy  and  speed. 
It  is  a  well-known  principle  of  psychology  that  in  order  to  engage 
the  attention  the  object  of  thought  must  be  continually  changing 
and  bringing  in  the  element  of  the  "new;"  and  when  a  given  pro- 
cess, by  reason  of  its  repetition,  ceases  to  be  an  expression  of  thought 
on  the  part  of  the  worker  it  ceases  to  contribute  to  the  development 
of  thought  power,  becomes  a  mere  monotonous  grind,  and  its  prin- 
cipal effect  upon  the  worker  is  a  sort  of  mechanical  skill. 

HANDWORK  PROMOTIVE  OF  SOCIAL  EDUCATION". 

Handwork  in  the  school  serves  to  interpret  the  important  role 
the  hand  of  man  has  played  in  human  progress.  Modern  civili- 
zation is  based  to  a  large  extent  upon  material  or  industrial 
progress.  By  this  statement  we  do  not  mean  to  ascribe  too 
great  honor  to  the  material  nor  to  detract  from  that  which 
is  due  to  the  spiritual.  It  is  true  that  great  advances  have 
been  made  along  intellectual  and  ethical  lines.  Vast  bodies  of 
knowledge  have  been  reduced  to  exact  sciences,  and  almost  unlim- 
ited quantities  of  information,  interesting,  useful  and  indispensa- 
ble have  been  gathered  together  and  catalogued  for  the  benefit  of 
the  human  race. 

It  does  not  minimize  the  importance  of  all  this  to  say  that 
man's  hand  has  done  much  to  bring  about  this  wonderful  thing 
that  we  call  modern  civilization.  It  has  been  generally  agreed 
that  two  inventions  are  pre-eminently  entitled  to  credit  in  this 


Manual  Training  in  the  Schools. 


connection — the  printing  press  and  the  steam  engine;  each  the 
product  of  some  man's  hand  as  well  as  brain,  and  each  doing  work 
that  would  have  to  be  done  by  men's  hands  or  be  left  undone.  These 
are  conspicuous  examples,  and  their  significance  is  apparent  upon 
a  moment's  reflection;  but  equally  typical  examples  may  be  found 
all  thru  life.  The  one  thing  that  characterizes  life  today  and  dis- 
tinguishes it  from  what  it  was  two  hundred  years  ago  is  the  fact 
that  man  has  set  more  forces  to  work  "doing"  things.  After  the 
various  domestic  animals  had  been  exploited  to  the  limit  of  their 
capacities  there  was  still  work  to  be  done.  Man  still  dreamed  of 
greater  things  to  be  accomplished.  Horse-power  and  ox-power  be- 
ing inadequate,  man  turned  his  attention  to  the  natural  forces  that 
he  found  so  free  and  abundant  in  his  environment.  So  wind  and 
water  have  been  the  subjects  of  endless  experiments  for  the  utiliza- 
tion of  the  power  they  were  observed  to  contain.  Then  steam,  hot 
air  and  various  gases,  and  more  recently  electricity,  have  been  set 
to  work.  In  all  cases  these  forces  must  be  utilized  thru  the  medium 
of  a  machine  or  some  mechanical  contrivance  which  man  must 
build  with  his  hands;  and  after  the  machine  is  built  it  must  be 
controlled  and  tended  by  hand. 

Enough  has  been  said  to  indicate  how  much  of  our  civilization 
is  due  to  man's  ability  and  willingness  to  use  his  hands  and  to  what 
extent  further  progress  is  dependent  upon  the  acquisition  and  ap- 
plication of  this  ability.  If  it  is  true  that  a  person  who  has  stud- 
ied some  musical  instrument  will  be  able  to  appreciate  instru- 
mental music  more  completely  because  of  that  study;  and  if  a 
person  who  has  attempted  to  draw  or  paint  under  good  instruction 
will  be  able  to  see  more  in  the  artistic  productions  of  others ;  it  is 
equally  true  that  a  person  who  has  learned  to  do  things  with  his 
own  hands  will  be  the  better  able  to  recognize  merit  in  the  handi- 
work of  another;  and,  conversely,  he  who  has  no  personal  knowl- 
edge of  what  the  hand  can  do  and  of  how  things  are  done  must 
fail  to  apprehend  the  significance  of  much  that  he  sees  in  the  world 
about  him. 

Instruction  in  manual  training,  then,  will  furnish  the  pupil 
with  a  background  of  personal  knowledge  and  experience  in  the 
light  of  which  he  may  be  able  to  interpret  more  intelligently  the 
material  and  artificial  features  of  his  environment,  and  will  lay 
the  basis  for  a  wider  and  genuine  social  sympathy. 


The  Normal  School  Quarterly. 


HANDWORK   TYPICAL   OF  ACTIVITIES    IN    REAL   LIFE. 

Nearly  everywhere  in  the  history  of  education  may  be  found 
the  aim,  more  or  less  direct,  of  individual  development  for  social 
efficiency.  The  meaning  and  implication  of  the  term  "social  effi- 
ciency" have  varied  as  society  itself  has  changed  from  one  period 
to  another,  and  ideas  as  to  how  to  bring  about  this  efficiency  have 
also  varied  greatly.  But  in  recent  years  it  has  more  and  more 
come  to  be  accepted  that  the  way  to  prepare  for  social  efficiency  is 
thru  social  experience.  As  some  would  have  it:  "Education  is 
not  preparation  for  life ;  education  is  life."  In  this  connection  let 
me  make  the  following  quotation  from  Dr.  Dewey's  "Pedagogic 
Creed" :  "I  believe  that  the  school  is  primarily  a  social  institution. 
Education  being  a  social  process,  the  school  is  simply  that  form 
of  community  life  in  which  all  those  agencies  are  concentrated  that 
will  be  most  effective  in  bringing  the  child  to  share  in  the  inher- 
ited resources  of  the  race,  and  to  use  his  own  powers  for  social 
ends.     I  believe  that  education,  therefore,  is  a  process  of  living 

and  not  a  preparation  for  future  living I  believe  that  much 

of  present  education  fails  because  it  neglects  this  fundamental 
principle  of  the  school  as  a  form  of  community  life.  It  conceives 
the  school  as  a  place  where  certain  information  is  to  be  given, 
where  certain  lessons  are  to  be  learned,  or  where  certain  habits  are 
to  be  formed.  The  value  Q-f  these  is  conceived  as  lying  largely  in 
the  remote  future ;  the  child  must  do  these;  things  for  the  sake  of 
something  else  he  is  to  do ;  they  are  mere  preparations.  As  a  re- 
sult they  do  not  become  a  part  of  the  life  experience  of  the  child 
and  so  are  not  truly  educative I  believe that  the  pri- 
mary basis  of  education  is  in  the  child's  powers  at  work  along  the 
same  general  constructive  lines  as  those  which  have  brought  civili- 
zation into  being.  I  believe  that  the  only  way  to  make  the  child 
conscious  of  his  social  heritage  is  to  enable  him  to  perform  those 
fundamental  types  of  activities  which  make  civilization  what  it  is. 
I  believe,  therefore,  in  the  so-called  expressive  or  constructive  ac- 
tivities as  the  center  of  correlation.  I  believe  that  this  gives  the 
standard  for  the  place  of  cooking,  sewing,  manual  training,  etc., 
in  the  school.  I  believe  that  they  are  not  special  studies  which 
are  to  be  introduced  over  and  above  a  lot  of  others  in  the  way  of 
relaxation  or  relief,  or  as  additional  accomplishments.     I  believe 


Manual  Training  in  the  Schools. 


rather  that  they  represent,  as  types,  fundamental  forms  of  social 
activities ;  and  that  it  is  possible  and  desirable  that  the  child's  in- 
troduction into  the  more  formal  subjects  of  the  curriculum  be  thru 
the  medium  of  these  activities."     (p.  7  ff.) 

To  reorganize  our  schools  upon  the  basis  of  the  principles 
here  laid  down  would  in  truth  mean  an  educational  revolution ;  in 
certain  features  entire  reconstruction  is  indicated.  But  our  elabo- 
rate courses  of  study  and  our  ponderous  systems  of  schools  with 
the  acquired  momentum  of  years  do  not  readily  respond  to  new 
forces.  Altho  certain  theories  of  intellectual  development  have 
been  shown  to  lack  foundation  in  fact,  nevertheless  many  features 
of  curriculum  and  method  based  upon  these  supposed  laws  still 
persist  in  practice.  When  life  has  changed  so  marvelously  in  every 
other  aspect  as  it  has  in  the  last  twenty  years  it  is  not  rational  to 
expect  education  to  continue  on  the  same  old  lines. 

Perhaps  a  reference  to  statistics  will  bring  out  the  thought 
of  the  particular  contribution  to  preparation  for  complete  living 
now  under  discussion;  viz.,  that  manual  training  introduces  into 
the  school  certain  selected  lines  of  work  that  are  typical  of  activi- 
ties carried  on  in  real  life.  If  activities — and  we  are  speaking  now 
more  particularly  of  manual  activities — have  no  special  significance 
attached  to  them  in  real  life  there  is  no  reason  why  they  should 
claim  very  much  of  the  limited  time  set  apart  for  the  purpose  of 
education.  If,  on  the  contrary,  the  hand  plays  any  prominent 
part  as  a  tool  in  the  doing  of  the  world's  work,  and  the  ability  to 
use  it  as  such  has  anything  to  do  with  determining  the  present 
comfort  and  future  independence  of  the  individual,  then  must  its 
rightful  place  in  education  be  recognized  and  its  claim  for  atten- 
tion justified. 

According  to  the  United  States  census  for  1900  the  total  num- 
ber of  individuals  reported  as  engaged  in  gainful  occupations  was 
29,286,000.     This  number  is  classified  according  to  vocations: 

Agricultural  pursuits — 10,438,000,  or  35.7  per  cent. 
Professional  service — 1,264,000,  or  4.3  per  cent. 
Domestic  and  personal  service — 5,691,000,  or  19.4  per  cent. 
Trade  and  transportation — 4,778,000,  or  16.3  per  cent. 
Manufacturing  and  mechanical  pursuits — 7,113,000,  or  24.3 
per  cent. 


The  Normal  School  Quarterly. 


During  the  last  fifty  years  there  has  been  a  marked  decrease  in 
the  proportion  of  the  number  of  individuals  engaged  in  agricul- 
tural pursuits,  and  there  has  been  a  large  increase  in  the  percent- 
age of  those  employed  in  trade  and  transportation  and  in  manu- 
facturing and  mechanical  pursuits.  These  figures  show  what  a 
large  part  manual  work  and  especially  the  constructive  industries 
play  in  our  national  life.  It  is  instructive  to  note  what  a  large 
proportion  of  these  methods  of  gaining  a  livelihood  employ  the 
hand  more  or  less  directly.  We  are  pre-eminently  an  industrial 
nation,  and  if  we  are  to  maintain  our  supremacy  among  the  nations 
of  the  world  we  must  be  even  more  than  we  have  been  a  manufac- 
turing nation.  This  can  only  be  accomplished  by  raising  up  gen- 
erations of  children  who  can  do  something  with  their  hands.  This 
does  not  imply,  as  has  been  already  indicated,  the  teaching  of 
trades  in  the  common  schools;  but  it  does  mean  that  children 
should  be  brought  up  to  know  something  at  first  hand  about 
"things/*  the  realities  of  life,  and  the  elements  of  such  typical 
industries  as  it  may  be  possible  to  introduce  into  the  work  of  the 
school. 

It  is  to  satisfy  this  demand  that  we  now  find  in  the  schools 
such  activities  as  weaving  and  basket  making,  modeling  in  clay, 
work  in  paper  and  card-board,  tin  and  iron  and  wood,  and  the  rest. 
They  are  put  there,  not  that  the  children  may  by  means  of  them 
become  self-supporting,  but  that  the  school  may  be  as  nearly  as  pos- 
sible a  counterpart  of  that  life  upon  which  these  children  are  so 
soon  to  enter. 

HANDWORK  A  MEANS  OF  EXPRESSION"  ESSENTIAL  TO  COMPLETE 
MENTAL  GROWTH. 

Colonel  Parker's  "Talks  on  Pedagogics"  contains  a  chapter  in 
which  expression  is  defined  as  "the  manifestation  of  thought  and 
emotion  thru  the  body  by  means  of  the  physical  agents."  (p.  224.) 
Of  the  nine  modes  of  expression  there  enumerated,  language  is 
given  the  chief  place  as  a  means  of  studying  human  development. 
"Next  to  language  may  be  placed  the  tools  and  instruments  which 
man  has  used  thru  all  the  ages  in  manifesting  his  needs  and  his 
aspirations  to  others." 


Manual  Training  in  the  Schools, 


Man  has  been  called  a  thinking  animal  as  if  that  characteriza- 
tion were  sufficient  to  distinguish  him  from  the  rest  of  creation. 
But  man  is  known  to  be  a  thinking  animal  solely  by  the  expression 
of  his  thought.  In  the  chapter  already  referred  to  occurs  this  pass- 
age: "The  inward  impulse  or  desire  finds  expression  in  outward 
form  or  object;  as  the  Creator  manifests  himself  to  man  thru  forms 
and  qualities  of  matter  so  man  manifests  himself  to  his  fellow 
men  by  formal  creations.  The  externalization  of  thought  is  by 
means  of  the  physical  action  called  skill. . .  .     The  exercise  of  the 

physical  agents  in  acts  of  expression is  brought  about  by 

the  striving  of  the  will  to  make  skill  in  expression  adequate  to 
thought;  the  health,  growth,  development  and  elaboration  of  the 
body  as  an  instrument  of  attention  and  expression  depends  mainly 

upon  the  variety,  kind,  and  quality  of  acts  of  expression 

Expression  demands  either  reflection  or  attention,  or  both.  At- 
tention has  for  its  basis  the  motive  of  expression.  This  implies 
that  the  trend  of  all  human  thought  is  toward  expressive  action; 
that  thought  which  does  not  end  in  action  dies  or  stagnates/5 
(pp.  228-229.) 

The  making  of  things  has  been  stated  to  be  "the  material 
basis  of  life  and  living."  He  who  has  never  "made"  anything 
and  is  not  conscious  of  any  ability  to  make  anything  has  indeed 
failed  to  qualify  as  one  of  the  "lords  of  creation."  It  is  the  func- 
tion of  manual  training  in  the  process  of  education  to  assist  in 
the  unfolding  of  powers  otherwise  neglected  and  yet  essential  to 
complete  living — powers  which  the  individual  needs  for  the  mas- 
tery, first,  of  himself,  and  then,  of  his  environment. 

CULTIVATION  OF  USEFUL  HABITS. 

Manual  training  involves  the  cultivation  of  habits  of  neat- 
ness, regularity,  perseverance,  self-criticism,  self-confidence,  indi- 
vidual initiative,  etc.  If  education  is,  as  Professor  James  de- 
scribes it,  "the  organization  of  acquired  habits  of  conduct  and 
tendencies  to  behavior"  ("Talks  to  Teachers,"  p.  29),  then  surely 
manual  training  is  entitled  to  consideration  as  an  educational 
factor  of  great  value.  It  may  not  be  easy  for  one  who  knows 
nothing  at  first  hand  of  how  instruction  in  handwork  is  given 
in    the    schools   to    appreciate   the    extent    of    its    usefulness    in 


The  Normal  School  Quarterly. 


this  direction.  Of  course,  there  is  a  question  as  to  whether  any 
given  habit  is  active  or  effective  outside  of  its  particular  setting. 
Persons  have  been  observed  to  maintain  the  utmost  regularity  in 
certain  directions  who  are  just  as  derelict  in  others.  But,  how- 
ever that  may  be,  since  man  is  a  creature  of  habit  the  acquisition 
of  any  good  and  useful  habit  is  certainly  so  much  clear  gain. 

Time  would  fail  to  discuss  any  of  these  habits  in  an  extended 
way,  but  more  than  a  mere  passing  mention  should  be  given  to 
the  salutary  influence  manual  training  exerts  in  the  direction  of 
developing  the  spirit  and  habit  of  self-criticism.  Many  of  the 
tasks  set  before  pupils,  old  and  young,  fail  wholly  or  partially  of 
accomplishing  their  intended  results.  There  are  too  many  ways  of 
getting  assistance  here,  an  explanation  there,  and  the  key  to  the 
solution  of  a  knotty  problem  somewhere  else,  and  even  the  doing 
of  the  work  entirely  by  others.  Inasmuch  as  the  individual  must 
"learn  to  do  by  doing"  he  must  sacrifice  his  own  growth  when  he 
substitutes  the  performance  of  another  for  his  own.  Manual  train- 
ing in  the  school  presents  a  line  of  work  in  the  prosecution  of 
which  every  achievement  shows  for  just  what  it  is.  A  certain 
amount  of  thought  and  labor  are  required  to  produce  a  certain  re- 
sult upon  a  piece  of  -  wood;  and  the  condition  of  that  piece  of  wood 
at  any  stage  of  the  process  is  a  declaration,  inevitable  and  inexor- 
able, of  the  amount  of  thought  and  labor  that  have  been  expended 
and  the  amount  still  necessary.  Instruments  of  precision,  or  tools 
for  measuring  and  testing  the  accuracy  of  results,  are  a  part  of 
the  regular  shop  equipment  which  the  pupils  are  taught  to  use 
and  apply  constantly  to  their  work.  The  pupils  themselves  are 
able  to  test  their  own  work  and  are  able  to  judge  intelligently  of 
their  progress.  They  are  not  aiming  at  an  ideal  that  exists  only 
in  the  mind  of  the  teacher — an  ideal  to  the  child  in  many  cases  un- 
known and  in  some  cases  unknowable.  Instead,  the  aim  is  some- 
thing comprehensible,  and  because  concrete  it  is  capable  of  being 
dealt  with  by  the  child-mind.  In  most  cases  the  thing  to  be  done 
appeals  to  the  child  as  a  goal  desirable  of  attainment  and  worthy 
of  his  endeavor  quite  irrespective  of  the  fact  that  it  was  set  before 
him  by  the  teacher. 

That  very  desirable  frame  of  mind  we  commonly  denominate 
self-confidence,  or  self-reliance,  is  one  of  the  choice  fruits  of  a  well- 
balanced  education  that  reaches  its  greatest  perfection  under  the 


Manual  Training  in  the  Schools. 


cultivation  afforded  thru  handwork.  Each  pupil  is  judged  and 
stands  or  falls  by  the  results  of  his  own  efforts ;  he  learns  that  noth- 
ing will  make  a  showing  save  genuine,  earnest  work.  Having  ap- 
prehended the  end  that  is  to  be  reached,  and  having  received  ad- 
vice as  to  the  method  of  procedure,  he  must  personally  go  thru 
every  step  of  the  process  to  the  end.  At  each  step  there  is  re- 
quired a  decision,  an  act  of  the  will,  to  determine  the  immediate 
action;  the  result  of  this  action  must  be  considered  in  its  bearing 
upon  the  ultimate  end  desired  and  in  determining  succeeding  ac- 
tion. In  this  the  pupil  feels  himself  thrown  upon  his  own  re- 
sources. He  sees  the  necessity  of  making  some  decision  in  view  of 
the  facts  before  him  and  then  of  carrying  that  decision  out  into 
action.     This  leads  up  naturally  to  our  next  statement. 

CO-ORDINATION  OF   THE  PHYSICAL  AND  MENTAL. 

Manual  training  serves  to  promote  the  co-ordination  of  the 
motor  organism  and  the  mind. 

"Brain  and  mind  alike,"  says  Professor  James,  "consist  of  sim- 
ple elements,  sensory  and  motor."  (Psychology:  Briefer  Course, 
p.  105.)  "The  whole  neural  organism,  it  will  be  remembered,  is, 
physiologically  considered,  but  a  machine  for  converting  stimuli 
into  reactions ;  and  the  intellectual  part  of  our  life  is  knit  up  with 
but  the  middle  or  'central'  part  of  the  machine's  operation." 
(Ibid,  p.  370.) 

Every  normal  human  being  is  provided  with  an  organism  of 
which  the  mind  is  the  vital  agent.  This  organic  apparatus  has  two 
important  functions ;  one  is  to  carry  to  the  brain  the  various  sensory 
impressions,  and  the  other  is  to  carry  to  the  appropriate  muscles  the 
mandates  of  the  mind  and  cause  them  to  be  executed.  Now  it  is  of 
the  utmost  importance  that  this  apparatus  be  adjusted  so  that  its 
workings  can  be  depended  upon.  The  sensory  and  motor  elements 
must  be  co-ordinated.  There  is  a  common  type  of  humanity  in 
whom  this  connection  is  not  well  made.  Those  persons  who  are 
always  doing  the  wrong  thing  at  the  wrong  time  do  not  do  so  al- 
ways thru  ignorance;  in  very  many  cases  they  know  what  they 
want  to  do  or  what  they  ought  to  do  but  fail  because  of  their  lack 
of  ability  to  carry  their  good  intentions  into  effect.  The  time- 
worn  statement  that  "knowledge  is  power"  is  only  a  half-truth 


10  The  Normal  School  Quarterly. 

that,  in  the  case  of  the  ordinary  individual,  needs  its  complement, 
"practice  makes  perfect."  In  addition  to  the  knowing  and  the 
willing  we  must  have  the  doing. 

Dr.  Gilbert  would  make  this  point  prominent  in  the  argument 
for  manual  training:  "The  highest  activity  of  the  mind  is  crea- 
tion, the  conceiving  a  new  thing  and  carefully  working  out  in 
detail  the  conception,  and  then  putting  it  into  actual  realization. 
The  man  who  conceives,  designs,  and  makes  things  is  performing 
the  highest  function  of  mind.  This  is  what  is  done  in  a  proper 
course  of  manual  training.  The  imagination  is  stimulated,  ex- 
pression is  encouraged,  and  then  production  follows  and  com- 
pletes the  educational  circle.  The  boy  who  has  thought  out  a 
tool,  or  a  machine,  or  even  a  definite  piece  of  carpentry,  has  por- 
trayed his  conception  in  a  drawing  upon  paper,  and  then  has  made 
it,  has  really  accomplished  more  and  has  gotten  more  power  than 
would  have  been  possible  thru  any  amount  of  learning  about  things. 

The  advantage  of  manual  training  work  for  young  people 

is  its  reality.  It  is  so  tangible.  The  boy  has  ideas,  but  words  for 
their  expression  escape  him;  he  is  frequently  embarrassed  and  un- 
able to  express  himself  in  acts;  but  give  him  tools  and  things  to 
work  on,  and  he  possesses  himself  at  once,  and  thru  the  exercise 
of  this  highest  function  gains  that  tremendous  power  that  comes  in 
no  other  way."  (Charles  B.  Gilbert:  Manual  Training  in  the 
Public  Schools;  Proceedings  of  the  Eastern  Manual  Training 
Teachers'  Association,  1901,  p.  102.) 

The  key-note  of  the  new  education  is  doing.  It  is  not  simply 
to  add  a  new  frill  to  the  educational  garment  that  we  advocate  the 
method  of  "learning  by  doing."  Par  from  that,  "it  is  the  vital 
element  in  all  education,  physical,  mental,  and  moral."  Life  it- 
self is  made  up  of  action  rather  than  dreams  and  reveries  and  con- 
templation. It  is  not  sufficient  to  read  and  talk  about  noble  living 
and  right  action ;  will  power  is  developed  only  by  its  exercise.  The 
pupil  must  be  required  to  make  repeated  decisions  and  thus  develop 
ability  to  determine  and  regulate  his  own  activities. 

Manual  training,  therefore,  deserves  the  prominence  given  it 
as  an  educational  factor  because  it  does  enforce  the  use  of  the 
faculties  and  because  it  does  cultivate  nerve-power,  self-control, 
and  decision. 


Manual  Training  in  the  Schools.  11 


VARIETY  OF  MATERIALS  AND  PROCESSES. 

Handwork  in  the  school  should  introduce  a  variety  of  mate- 
rials and  processes.  In  order  to  bring  in  this  variety  it  is  our 
purpose  to  make  use  of  the  following,  as  circumstances  may  per- 
mit: Paper  and  card-board  work,  cord-work,  weaving  or  textile 
work,  building  with  blocks,  modeling  in  clay,  basketry,  bead  work, 
work  in  tin  and  iron,  elementary  woodwork,  and  bench  woodwork. 

It  is  well  to  note  why  variety  is  essential.  The  two  principal 
reasons  arise,  one  from  the  nature  of  the  child,  the  other  from 
the  nature  of  the  work.  In  the  first  place,  it  will  be  apparent  to 
any  one  acquainted  with  the  wide  range  of  the  child's  interests 
that  no  one  material  or  line  of  work  would  suffice  to  hold  his  at- 
tention or  to  keep  him  profitably  occupied  for  any  considerable 
period  of  time.  And  in  the  second  place,  no  one  of  these  lines 
of  work  presents  ideal  conditions  for  all  kinds  of  work  with  all 
children.  Each  one  of  these  mediums  possesses  certain  character- 
istics that  recommend  it  for  training  along  certain  lines.  Some 
work  calls  for  accuracy  and  regularity,  while  other  kinds  of  work 
allow  for  freedom  of  expression;  some  materials  are  hard  and 
unyielding,  while  others  are  more  plastic  and  flexible.  All  of 
these  qualities  are  valuable  in  their  due  proportion  and  each 
should  have  its  place. 

MANUAL  TRAINING  FOR  BOTH  SEXES. 

Boys  and  girls  alike  should  receive  the  benefits  of  manual 
training.  As  has  been  already  pointed  out,  the  end  in  view  is  not 
the  making  of  apprentices  to  any  trade,  but  the  full,  rounded  and 
balanced  development  of  the  individual;  and  that  this  be  accorded 
to  pupils  of  one  sex  and  denied  to  those  of  the  other  would  be  a 
discrimination  both  unjust  and  indefensible.  This  does  not  mean 
that  no  differentiation  could  be  made  in  the  work  of  the  boys  and 
the  girls.  Neither  does  it  mean  that  girls  must  be  taught  nothing 
that  is  not  essentially  feminine  and  the  boys  nothing  that  is  not 
essentially  masculine. 

TEACHERS  OF  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

Manual  training  should  be  conducted  by  the  regular  grade 
teachers  thru  the  first  six  years  of  the  elementary  school,  and  there- 


12  The  Normal  School  Quarterly. 

after  by  special  teachers.  Most  of  the  processes  suitable  for  use 
in  the  lower  grades  are  easily  mastered  by  the  regular  teachers. 
There  is  no  reason  why  the  average  teacher  should  not  qualify  her- 
self, by  attendance  at  summer  school  or  otherwise,  for  the  success- 
ful prosecution  of  the  work.  For  the  more  technical  work  of  the 
upper  grades,  however,  special  teachers  are  essential. 

LINES   OF  WORK  TO  FOLLOW. 

Handwork  should  proceed  along  lines  that  appeal  to  the  inter- 
ests of  the  pupil.  Statements  bearing  upon  this  point  have  al- 
ready been  made  in  this  paper  and  it  is  perhaps  not  wise  to  pur- 
sue the  argument  any  further.  It  is  a  direct  corollary  of  Froe- 
bePs  great  law  of  self-activity  and  it  ought  to  be  effective  in  all 
departments  of  school  practice.  The  only  question  is  as  to  how 
to  bring  it  about.  It  is  physically  impossible  to  execute  a  scheme 
of  education  that  would  provide  that  every  pupil  should  be  en- 
gaged only  in  such  work  as  for  the  time  being  interests  him,  and 
it  would  be  pedagogically  unwise  to  turn  a  group  of  children  loose 
among  tools  to  make  anything  they  choose. 

It  seems  to  be  essential  to  the  pupil's  continued  interest  in 
manual  work  that  he  be  made  conscious  of  progress — he  must  feel 
his  own  increasing  efficiency.  To  bring  this  about  requires  that 
things  be  laid  out  in  some  orderly  way  so  that  there  may  be  a  pro- 
gression from  the  easy  to  the  more  difficult ;  but  so  far  as  possible 
the  individual  tastes  of  the  pupil  are  consulted  and  his  interests 
are  appealed  to. 

ORGANIC  PLACE  OF  HANDWORK  IN  THE  COURSE. 

Manual  training  should  be  an  integral  part  of  the  course  of 
study.  One  of  the  objections  that  has  long  been  urged  against 
manual  training  in  the  school  is  that  there  is  no  room  for  it.  It 
has  suffered  the  fate  of  the  other  so-called  "special"  studies  and 
in  most  cases  has  been  simply  "patched  on"  to  an  already  over- 
crowded curriculum.  The  course  of  study  that  was  adopted  one 
hundred  years  ago  was  planned  to  meet  the  demands  of  the  then 
existing  state  of  society;  and  it  seems  almost  incredible  that  those 
who  are  responsible  for  the  education  of  today  should  be  content 
with  a  course  of  study  that  is  but  little  more  than  the  old  one  "re- 
vised and  enlarged"  and  "brought  down  to  date"  by  the  addition 


Manual  Training  in  the  Schools.  13 

of  a  few  "specialties,"  apparently  heedless  of  the  fact  that  in  the 
meantime  society  and  civilization  have  changed  so  greatlv. 

When  the  individual  grows  up  and  goes  out  into  the  world  he 
is  not  going  to  have  to  read  and  write  and  spell  any  more  than  he  is 
going  to  have  to  do  other  things.  His  success  in  life  is  going  to  de^ 
pend  pretty  largely  upon  his  ability  to  meet  situations  demanding 
clear  thought  and  prompt  and  intelligent  action.  Since  "doing" 
plays  such  a  prominent  part  in  real  life  it  ought  to  play  a  corre- 
spondingly prominent  part  in  any  plan  of  education  that  under- 
takes to  prepare  for  that  life.  It  is  clear  that  manual  training 
subserves  this  purpose  and  the  indications  are  that  the  curriculum 
of  the  not  very  distant  future  will  recognize  this  fact  officially  and 
give  it  its  rightful  place.  It  is  highly  probable  even  that  manual 
work  will  form  the  very  core  and  foundation  of  the  curriculum  for 
the  elementary  school.  Indeed  this  claim  is  already  being  made 
for  manual  training  as  noted  in  the  quotation  from  Professor 
Dewey,  and  in  the  following  from  Miss  Mitchell:  "Constructive 
work,  manual  training,  industrial  art,  drawing,  painting — hand- 
work of  all  kinds,  by  whatever  name — form  a  large  part  of  th* 
social  occupations  of  the  school  life.  The  question  is  as  to  theit 
place  and  educative  value.  Psychology  as  well  as  experience  proves 
them  to  be  among  the  central  interests  of  young  life,  the  strong- 
est forces  in  the  school  room,  the  most  economical  means  to  power 
and  knowledge.  Grouped  together  with  other  social  occupations, 
they  should  be  the  center  of  the  course  of  study,  and  about  them 
should  be  ranged  all  the  other  subjects  of  the  curriculum."  (Man- 
ual Training  Magazine,  vol.  3,  no.  1,  p.  13.) 

Until  the  problem  of  adjusting  the  curriculum  to  the  demands 
of  modern  civilization  has  been  scientifically  worked  out  we  must 
accept  conditions  as  they  are  and  make  the  most  of  them.  This 
means  that  for  the  present  at  least  we  must  take  a  certain  amount 
of  time  from  other  studies  and  devote  it  to  manual  training.  But 
as  the  result  of  such  an  arrangement  we  must  not  suppose  that  the 
studies  thus  subtracted  from  are  to  be  weakened.  On  the  con- 
trary manual  training  will  impart  new  vigor  to  the  rest  of  the 
work  and  there  is  no  reason  why  any  of  it  should  suffer.  Take 
mathematics,  for  example ;  handwork  is  so  closely  related  to  arith- 
metic and  its  demands  upon  the  pupiPs  knowledge  of  that  subject 
are  so  frequent  that  it  acts  as  a  positive  stimulus  to  its  study.    The 


14  The  Normal  School  Quarterly. 

same  can  be  shown  to  be  true  to  a  greater  or  less  extent  of  other 
studies. 

Provision  for  manual  training  in  the  daily  program  is  in 
many  cases  simply  a  question  of  arrangement.  Wherever  possible, 
study  periods  rather  than  recitation  periods  are  used  for  this  pur- 
pose, so  that  with  a  small  amount  of  outside  study  the  regular 
program  undergoes  but  little  change.  In  the  upper  grades  where 
the  classes  are  obliged  to  go  to  a  special  shop  time  can  be  saved  by 
having  one  handwork  period  the  first  thing  in  the  morning  or  after- 
noon session  and  the  other  the  last  thing.  The  first  class  would 
then  report  from  their  homes  directly  to  the  special  teacher  and 
the  second  class  would  be  excused  from  the  shop  to  go  home.  In 
a  great  many  schools  successful  beginnings  have  been  made  by 
doing  all  the  handwork  outside  of  school  hours  (before  and  after 
school,  during  recess  periods,  and  Saturdays)  without  interfering 
with  the  regular  work  in  any  way.  The  interested  teacher  will 
not  fail  to  find  a  way  and  she  may  count  on  the  interest  and  co- 
operation of  her  pupils. 

EQUIPMENT  AND  MATERIALS. 

Considerations  of  expense  have  frequently  prevented  the  in- 
troduction of  manual  training  into  schools  where  its  value  has 
been  recognized.  This  ought  not  to  be,  however,  for  it  has  been 
shown  that  when  necessary  any  work  that  is  worth  while  can  be  done 
at  practically  no  expense.  A  modest  and  inexpensive  beginning  in 
good  hands  is  far  better  than  an  extravagant  and  costly  experiment 
ill-conducted.  The  following  extract  from  the  Manual  Training 
Magazine,  may  be  of  interest: 

"In  a  recent  address,  Capt.  C.  E.  Vawter  of  the  Miller  Manual 
Labor  School  at  Eichmond,  Va.,  gave  some  pertinent  figures  as  re- 
gards the  cost  of  hand  training The  manual  training  in  the 

lower  grades  should  be  taught  in  the  regular  schoolroom  by  the 
regular  teacher  at  an  average  cost  not  exceeding  one  dollar  per 

pupil  a  year,  even  if  the  equipment  lasts  only  one  year The 

higher  grades  will  include  whittling  and  benchwork,  and  will  re- 
quire a  special  teacher  who  can  give  instruction  in  either  of  the 
departments  to  600  pupils,  if  one  lesson  of  ninety  minutes  is  given 
a  week,  and  to  300,  if  two  lessons  of  ninety  minutes  are  given  each 


Manual  Training  in  the  /Schools.  15 

week.     This  would  cost  per  pupil  66c  for  300  pupils  and  $1.33  for 
600.     The  cost  of  thirty  pupils  can  be  formulated  as  follows : 

SUBJECT  EQUIPMENT   MATERIAL    TOTAL 

Construction  in  paper $     8.70         $  8.00         $16.70 

Construction  in  pasteboard 13.65  2.00  15.65 

Clay  work 1.80  1.80  3.60 

Basketry  and  Weaving 3.00  4.20  7.20 

Whittling 90.00  6.00  96.00 

Benchwork 330.80  37.40         368.20 

The  equipment  will  last  for  several  years,  while  the  material 
is  estimated  for  only  one  year/'     (Vol.  5,  p.  120.) 

Those  who  wish  to  inquire  further  into  this  phase  of  the  work 
should  read  "The  Economics  of  Manual  Training/'  by  Louis  Bouil- 
lon; Teachers'  College  Record,  vol.  2,  no.  5;  price,  20c;  published 
by  the  Columbia  University  Press,  New  York. 

See  also  two  articles  on  "The  Cost  of  Manual  Training"  by 
William  E.  Roberts,  Supervisor  of  Manual  Training,  Cleveland 
Public  Schools;  Manual  Training  Magazine,  vol  3,  pp.  151,  217. 

SOME  REFERENCE  HELPS. 

For  any  who  may  wish  to  read  up  more  fully  on  some  of  the 
aspects  of  manual  training  the  following  references  are  among 
the  best : 

Dewey:     School  and  Society;  University  of  Chicago  Press. 

Dopp:  Place  of  Industries  in  Elementary  Education;  Uni- 
versity of  Chicago  Press. 

Chamberlain:  Paper  and  Cardboard  Construction;  Whita- 
ker  &  Ray,  San  Francisco. 

James  :     Indian  Basketry ;  Henry  Malkan,  New  York. 

Tinsley:  Practical  and  Artistic  Basketry;  Kellogg,  New 
York. 

Wheeler:     Woodworking  for  Beginners;  Putnam,  New  York. 

Keeler :     Our  Native  Trees ;  Scribner,  New  York. 

Pinchot:     Primer  of  Forestry;  Government  Bulletin. 

For  additional  material  consult  Chamberlain's  Bibliography  of 
the  Manual  Arts,  published  by  Flanagan,  Chicago.  The  "Manual 
Training  Magazine/'  published  by  the  Manual  Arts  Press,  Peoria, 
111.,  is  a  helpful  publication. 


16  The  Normal  School  Quarterly. 


Summer  Session. 


ILLINOIS    STATE   NORMAL   UNIVERSITY. 

Two  terms,  six  weeks  each. 
July  6  to  July  15. 
July  18  to  August  26. 

Thirty-nine  instructors  in  the  first  term. 

Twelve  in  the  second. 
Sixty-seven  courses  are  offered. 

Especial  advantages  are  afforded  in  Primary  Methods,  Manual 
Training,  Art  Instruction,  Natural  Science  and  Vocal  Music. 

Tuition  free  to  all  Illinois  teachers. 

For  description  of  courses  and  additional  information,  address, 
David  Felmley,  President, 

Normal,  Illinois. 


AND  STATICS 


BE  NORMAL 

Quarterly 


iifel 


Series  2 


July,  1904;: 


Number  II 


mx 


The  School  Excursion  and  the 

School  Museum  as  Aids 

in  the  Teaching  of 

Geography 


;;.  -g  ■;,•  By 
D.  C  RIDGLEY 


I 

■  j 

I  I 

I  I 


Entered    August    18,   190a,  Normal,   Illinois,  as   second    class    matter, 
C  under  Act  of  Congress  of  July  16,    1894 

P  U  B  L  ISHED      BY     THB     ILLINOIS     STATE 
NORMAL     U  NT  VERSITY,     NORMAL,     ILLI  NOIS 


N.  B.— -Wflj  persons  receiving  this  Quarterly  please  give 
prompt  notice  of  my  change  0!  address  ? 


NORMAL  SCHOOL  QUARTERLY 

Published  by  the  Illinois  State  Normal  University,  Normal,  Illinois 

Series  2  JULY,  1904  Number  11 


The  School  Excursion  and  the  School  Museum   as  Aids 
in  the  Teaching  of  Geography. 


It  is  my  purpose  to  consider  the  advisability  of  using  some  of 
the  helps  in  the  presentation  of  the  subject  of  geography  which  will 
require  the  teacher  and  pupil  to  go  beyond  the  confines  of  the 
schoolroom  to  obtain  them.  These  helps  are  not  intended  to 
supplant  the  time-honored  textbooks  and  wall  maps,  but  to  put 
new  and  fuller  meaning  into  them,  to  make  the  book  and  the  map 
the  servant  not  the  master  of  teacher  and  pupil. 

Geography  is  one  of  the  foremost  subjects  in  the  curriculum 
in  the  study  of  concrete  material.  Its  subject-matter  is  objective. 
It  considers  the  earth  in  its  relation  to  man.  It  includes  a  study 
of  the  practical  things  of  every  day  life  at  home  and  abroad. 

To  give  to  the  pupil  the  necessary  first-hand  knowledge  in  the 
study  of  geography  requires  that  the  pupil  and  the  thing  to  be 
studied  be  brought  together  face  to  face  and  at  short  range.  This 
can  be  done  in  one  of  two  ways:  by  taking  the  pupil  to  the  thing; 
or  by  bringing  the  thing  to  the  pupil.  The  first  is  the  most  effect- 
ive way  of  studying  the  various  topics  of  home  geography  and  leads 
to  the  intelligent  and  frequent  use  of  the  school  excursion.  The 
second  is  the  most  effective  way  of  giving  first-hand  knowledge  con- 
cerning the  geography  of  regions  beyond  the  home  locality  and 
leads  to  the  building  and  constant  use  of  the  school  museum. 


The  Normal  School  Quarterly. 


I  wish  to  speak  of  each  of  these  aids  in  the  teaching  of  geogra- 
phy not  from  the  theoretical  standpoint,  but  as  I  have  made  use 
of  them  in  classroom  practice.  My  experience  with  the  school  ex- 
cursion has  been  with  classes  from  the  third  year  thru  the  remain- 
ing years  of  the  grammar  school  in  a  public  school  of  a  thousand 
pupils  in  the  city  of  Chicago  and  in  the  lower  grades  of  the  Train- 
ing School  of  Normal,  also  in  the  high  schools  of  Chicago  and  in 
two  of  the  state  normal  schools  of  Illinois.  Classes  have  ranged  in 
numbers  from  half  a  dozen  to  eighty.  My  use  of  the  school  mu- 
seum has  extended  over  the  same  range  of  the  curriculum  with  the 
addition  of  the  first  and  second  grades. 

THE  SCHOOL  EXCURSION. 

The  school  excursion  is  an  expedition  made  by  the  pupils  of 
a  class  under  the  immediate  direction  of  the  teacher  for  the  study 
of  some  particular  topic  in  the  school  work.  The  pupils  are  respon- 
sible to  the  teacher  for  attention,  interest,  and  good  behavior  to  the 
same  extent  as  in  a  class  exercise  in  the  schoolroom. 

Successful  school  excursions  depend  upon  the  hearty  co-opera- 
tion of  school  officials,  principal,  teacher,  pupils,  and  parents.  All 
must  believe  that  it  is  a  good  thing  and  work  harmoniously  and 
earnestly  to  make  it  as  successful  as  other  school  exercises.  The 
school  board  and  superintendent  must  recognize  the  value  of  such 
work;  they  and  the  principal  must  willingly  permit  the  use  of 
school  time  to  the  extent  of  a  half -day  at  most  for  the  work.  The 
teacher  must  be  as  enthusiastic  in  this  work  as  in  any  other  if  she 
expects  to  reap  educational  results.  She  must  have  studied  the 
field  of  investigation  previous  to  the  time  of  the  class  exercise  and 
carefully  planned  the  steps  of  the  lesson.  To  fail  to  do  so  means 
great  loss  in  the  net  results  of  the  lesson.  The  pupils  must  feel 
that  an  outdoor  lesson  is  of  as  great  importance  and  value  as  any 
other  school  exercise.  Its  importance  is  evident  to  the  pupils  when 
it  is  clearly  brought  before  them  that  the  board  of  education,  super- 
intendent, and  principal  have  permitted  school  time  to  be  used  for 
the  lesson. 


The  School  Excursion  and  the  School  Museum. 


Much  better  spirit  is  manifest  and  much  better  results  obtained 
when  attendance  of  each  pupil  on  any  particular  excursion,  espe- 
cially if  at  considerable  distance  from  school,  is  left  to  the  volun- 
tary decision  of  the  parent.  The  excursion  is  not  as  effective  as  it 
should  be,  if  the  discussion  of  results  in  class  does  not  make  every 
one  who  did  not  go  wish  that  he  had  gone. 

In  Chicago  the  rules  of  the  board  of  education  require  that  no 
excursion  be  undertaken  without  the  consent  of  the  superintendent 
or  district  superintendent  of  schools,  and  that  no  pupil  shall  be 
permitted  to  go  on  any  excursion  without  the  written  consent  of 
the  parent  or  guardian. 

Many  of  the  teaching  force  of  the  Chicago  schools  read  this 
rule  of  the  board  and  say  that  there  are  too  many  restrictions  and 
too  much  red-tape  to  do  anything  in  the  line  of  excursions.  I  was 
inclined  to  the  same  opinion  until  I  learned  by  trial  that  each  re- 
quirement instead  of  being  a  hindrance  was  a  very  decided  help  in 
arranging  for  and  carrying  out  each  excursion. 

If  the  pupils  said  to  their  parents  that  Mr.  Cooley,  our  super- 
intendent, or  Mr.  Lane,  our  district  superintendent,  had  granted 
permission  to  have  an  outdoor  lesson  in  geography,  it  immediately 
lent  dignity  to  the  event.  It  was  not  so  likely  to  be  considered  a 
plan  of  the  teacher  and  pupils  to  have  a  picnic. 

The  written  consent  of  the  parent  saves  the  teacher  from  any 
criticism  of  having  taken  the  pupil  off  on  a  useless  trip  which  did 
not  in  any  way  meet  with  the  parent's  approval.  In  order  to  save 
trouble  to  the  parents,  the  pupils  carefully  copied  a  letter  of  re- 
quest placed  on  the  blackboard  by  the  teacher,  carried  it  home  and 
were  remarkably  successful  in  obtaining  signature  and  necessary 
car  fare. 

One  hundred  and  ninety-five  pupils  out  of  a  membership  of 
two  hundred  in  fourth  and  fifth  year  work  were  taken  in  sections 
of  twenty-five  to  fifty  to  the  Des  Plaines  Eiver,  seven  miles  away. 
The  five  remaining  pupils  were  ill  or  had  work  at  home  immedi- 
ately after  school.     All  of  the  forty-eight  pupils  of  the  seventh 


The  Normal  School  Quarterly. 


year,  save  one  who  had  made  the  trip  previously,  went  to  the  stock- 
yards and  Swift's  Packing  House.  Ninety  per  cent  or  more  of 
each  class  in  the  high  school  went  on  the  excursions. 

I  feel  that  all  excursions  taken  in  connection  with  the  various 
classes  from  the  third  year  thru  the  normal  school  have  been  more 
effective  as  lessons  in  geography  than  the  same  time  spent  in  class- 
room instruction.  Each  excursion  furnishes  the  best  possible  ma- 
terial for  class-room  instruction  for  several  days  or  a  week  after 
the  trip.  The  region  visited  need  not  be  peculiar  or  striking  to 
the  ordinary  observer.  The  almost  featureless  region  of  Chicago 
and  vicinity  is  rich  in  topographic  forms  in  miniature.  So  is 
almost  every  locality. 

I  will  now  indicate  some  of  the  particular  trips  taken  by  classes 
of  various  grades  and  the  scope  of  the  work  considered  in  some  of 
these  classes. 

In  excursions  of  the  third  year,  classes  were  taken  to  examine 
the  laying  of  the  cement  walks  about  the  school  building.  They 
observed  the  material  and  its  use,  also  the  work  of  different  men 
engaged. 

In  another  instance  while  studying  the  building  of  homes 
third  year  pupils  made  trips  to  a  house  in  process  of  construction, 
examined  the  foundation  of  brick  and  mortar,  learned  that  mortar 
is  made  of  sand  and  lime,  examined  the  studding,  weatherboarding, 
rafters,  roof,  arrangement  of  rooms  as  indicated  by  studding,  and 
went  to  the  gravel  pit  to  see  how  sand  is  screened  and  removed  from 
the  pit.  En  route  they  noted  a  valley  with  its  divides,  slopes,  and 
stream. 

While  standing  at  the  bottom  of  the  valley  by  the  stream  this 
question  was  asked:  "How  many  slopes  has  this  valley?"  About 
half  of  the  class  said,  "Three;"  the  others,  "Two."  One  who  said 
"Three"  was  asked  to  explain.  She  said,  "It  has  two  slopes  this 
way,"  bringing  her  hands  together  to  indicate  the  side  slopes,  "and 
it  must  slope  that  way,"  pointing  down  stream,  "or  the  water  could 
not  run  off."     All  others  grasped  the  point  made  by  their  little 


The  School  Excursion  and  the  School  Museum. 


teacher  within  a  minute.  In  the  presence  of  the  reality  faulty 
thinking  righted  itself. 

An  excursion  to  the  brick  mills  was  also  made  by  pupils  of 
the  third  year.  The  process  of  brickmaking  from  the  beginning 
was  observed.  Not  only  were  the  brick  mills  studied  but  their 
association  with  the  coal  mine  and  gas  works  was  thought  out  and 
stated  by  the  pupils.  They  saw  (1)  that  the  brick  mill  is  located 
where  it  is,  so  that  it  can  easily  get  the  clay  which  has  been  brought 
from  the  mine  for  making  the  brick  and  the  coal  for  burning  them ; 
(2)  that  the  gas  works  are  near  the  coal  mine  to  save  cost  of  trans- 
porting coal;  and  (3)  that  the  coke  made  by  manufacturing  the 
gas  is  used  in  the  early  stages  of  burning  the  brick  in  the  kilns.  A 
better  illustration  of  associated  industries  would  be  hard  to  find. 

Fourth  year  pupils  in  Chicago  were  taken  on  various  trips, 
among  others  to  the  Des  Plaines  Kiver,  the  Drainage  Canal,  and 
thru  the  business  district  to  visit  a  big  store,  the  Art  Institute, 
Public  Library,  site  of  old  Fort  Dearborn,  Water  street,  and  other 
places  of  interest.  In  the  upper  grades  excursions  were  made  to 
river,  canal,  stone  quarry,  and  stockyards. 

In  the  high  school,  excursions  were  made  especially  for  the 
study  of  physical  geography,  and  included  visits  to  several  locali- 
ties for  land  forms,  the  Weather  Bureau  station  for  study  of  mete- 
orological instruments  and  their  use,  and  the  Public  Library  for  its 
architecture  and  the  various  kinds  of  building  stones  used  in  its 
construction. 

A  single  trip  to  the  Hawthorne  stone  quarry  and  the  Drainage 
Canal  near  by  brought  out  many  points  very  strikingly;  among 
them,  the  following:  rock  strata,  relation  of  limestone  to  coral 
and  other  animals,  relation  of  Niagara  limestone  to  the  Chicago 
region,  relation  of  mantle  rock  to  bed  rock,  dip  and  strike  of  rock 
strata,  underground  water,  making  of  soil  by  weathering,  bed  rock 
scored  and  striated  by  glacial  action,  character  of  glacial  soil,  de- 
velopment of  miniature  valleys  in  clay  banks  at  the  margin  of 
the  quarry  showing  growth  of  valleys  headward,  tributaries,  lakes, 


The  Normal  School  Quarterly. 


waterfalls,  deltas,  floodplains,  river  terraces,  struggle  of  streams  for 
territory,  and  other  phases  of  stream  action.  At  the  Drainage 
Canal  the  great  embankments  on  each  side  are  of  glacial  drift 
thrown  out  of  the  canal.  Here  could  be  seen,  in  miniature,  moun- 
tain ranges,  mountain  peaks  made  by  erosion,  mountain  valleys  and 
passes,  alluvia]  cones  and  their  relation  to  mountain  valleys.  The 
pupils  obtained  a  conception  of  the  magnitude  of  the  Drainage 
Canal  and  an  understanding  of  its  purposes  and  its  geographic 
location. 

In  the  Normal  School  classes  at  Normal  we  have  visited  Macki- 
naw Dells  for  stream  work,  Sugar  Creek  and  its  branches  for 
stream  work,  drainage  basin  and  divides,  the  brick  mills  for  a  study 
of  different  kinds  of  rock  and  the  use  of  clay  rock  taken  from  the 
mines  near  by,  and  Miller  Park  for  a  study  of  a  dam  and  a  reser- 
voir. 

During  the  summer  session  of  1903  in  the  Normal  School  at 
DeKalb,  Illinois,  the  classes  visited  a  creamery  to  see  butter-making 
and  pasteurizing  of  milk;  Curler's  dairy  farm  to  learn  how  milk 
could  be  so  carefully  handled  as  to  make  it  unnecessary  to  sterilize 
it,  at  the  same  time  making  it  so  valuable  that  it  sells  in  Chicago 
for  twice  as  much  per  quart  as  ordinary  milk. 

The  longest  trip  made  by  the  students  at  DeKalb  was  one  of 
twenty  hours  to  Chicago.  The  party  numbered  fifty.  The  special 
purpose  was  a  visit  to  the  stockyards  and  Swift's  Packing  House. 
All  else  was  incidental.  The  students  asked  that  they  be  taken  to 
as  many  places  as  possible  so  that  they  might  know  how  to  reach 
them  for  further  study  when  in  the  city  alone.  To  indicate  the 
extent  to  which  their  request  was  complied  with  I  will  give  a  brief 
itinerary  of  the  day's  journey. 

We  left  DeKalb  early  on  a  Saturday  morning  in  a  special  car 
attached  to  the  regular  train.  The  ride  of  two  hours  was  spent  in 
a  study  of  the  topography  of  that  region  from  the  car  windows. 
The  succession  of  till  plains,  belts  of  morianic  hills,  and  stream  val- 
leys merging  into  the  Chicago  Lake  Plain  to  the  east  were  ob- 


The  School  Excursion  and  the  School  Museum. 


jects  of  especial  geographic  interest.  A  walk  of  several  blocks 
along  South  Water  street  busy  with  its  early  Saturday  trade 
gave  us  a  vivid  idea  of  the  labor  involved  in  provisioning  a  great 
city. 

A  ride  of  forty  minutes  on  the  Halsted  street  car,  took  us 
past  the  court  house  and  the  new  post  office  building,  across  the 
South  Branch  of  the  Chicago  Eiver  with  its  many  ships,  along  a 
network  of  railroad  tracks  and  landed  us  at  the  entrance  to  the 
Union  Stockyards. 

We  were  met  at  the  entrance  to  Swift's  Packing  House  by  three 
guides  furnished  by  the  firm  for  our  party.  We  spent  two  hours 
in  visiting  the  various  departments  of  the  packing  house.  We 
saw  the  dressing  of  hogs  and  cattle,  and  the  great  coolers  contain- 
ing thousands  of  dressed  hogs  and  beeves.  We  saw  the  careful  in- 
spection, selection,  stamping,  and  wrapping  of  Swift's  premium 
hams  and  bacon.  We  saw  the  sausage  chopped  and  stuffed  by  ma- 
chinery, the  canned  meats  deftly  wrapped,  labeled,  and  packed  ready 
for  shipment.  We  visited  the  rooms  where  great  vats  were  filled 
with  various  mixtures  to  be  boiled,  cooled,  and  cut  into  cakes  of 
soap.  The  butterine  factory  was  a  marvel  of  care  and  cleanliness 
to  those  who  had  supposed  it  otherwise. 

After  dinner  our  next  ride  brought  us  to  Jackson  Park  and 
the  Field  Columbian  Museum.  A  little  more  than  an  hour  gave 
the  members  of  the  party  an  opportunity  to  visit  the  lake  shore  and 
to  make  a  hurried  survey  of  the  exhibits  of  the  museum.  A  ride 
of  eight  miles  brought  us  to  the  Art  Institute  and  thirty  minutes 
were  allowed  for  walking  thru  its  galleries.  A  walk  thru  the  vari- 
ous departments  of  the  Public  Library  gave  interesting  glimpses  of 
this  magnificent  structure. 

It  was  now  five-thirty  and  all  were  hungry.  After  lunch  an- 
other ride  brought  us  to  Lincoln  Park  and  we  took  a  hurried  sur- 
vey of  the  zoological  garden,  drives,  and  statues  of  Chicago's  great- 
est playground. 

I  have  had  no  more  enjoyable  experience  in  excursion  work 
than  with  a  class  of  teachers  in  active  service  in  the  city  of  Chi- 


The  Normal  School  Quarterly. 


cago  during  the  spring  of  1903.  I  was  invited  to  meet  a  group 
of  teachers  for  a  lesson  in  geography  once  a  week  after  school.  At 
one  of  these  meetings  I  asked  whether  any  should  like  to  go  on 
Saturday  excursions.  A  number  wished  to  do  so  and  an  invita- 
tion to  meet  on  a  certain  street  crossing  on  the  following  Saturday 
brought  out  a  dozen  teachers  to  visit  the  stockyards.  Two  weeks 
later  twenty-seven  visited  the  Weather  Bureau  station  in  the  Audi- 
torium tower.  Professor  Cox  took  us  into  his  inner  room  and 
showed  us  how  he  makes  weather. 

In  May  twenty-five  teachers  went  forty  miles  to  visit  Dun- 
ham's Horse  Farm — two  thousand  seven  hundred  acres  and  five 
hundred  horses.  We  were  met  at  the  station,  driven  to  the  farm 
house  and  entertained  at  dinner.  This  was  followed  by  as  fine 
an  exhibition  of  horses  as  the  original  of  Rosa  Bonheur's  famous 
Horse  Fair.  We  were  then  driven  over  the  two  thousand  seven 
hundred  acre  farm  with  its  fine  grounds,  woods,  deer  park,  great 
fields  of  corn,  oats,  and  hay,  making  our  final  stop  at  the  railway 
station.  All  this  was  due  to  the  courtesy  and  generosity  of  the 
owners  of  the  farm. 

One  Saturday  in  June  sixty  teachers  made  a  trip  along  the 
Drainage  Canal  by  special  electric  car  to  Eomeo,  four  miles  on 
canal  by  boat,  visited  the  controlling  works  at  Lockport,  took  din- 
ner at  Joliet,  visited  the  Des  Plaines  Eiver  to  get  relation  of  dam 
to  power  house,  saw  how  the  Illinois  and  Michigan  Canal  crosses 
the  river,  examined  the  lock  in  the  canal  by  which  boats  pass  the 
dam,  and  visited  a  stone  quarry. 

The  number  of  pupils,  students,  and  teachers  taken  on  these 
trips  would  reach  several  thousand.  No  accident  or  unfortunate 
event  occurred  to  detract  from  the  value  of  any  of  the  excursions. 
The  testimony  of  pupils,  students,  and  teachers  has  been  strongly 
in  favor  of  such  a  method  of  instruction.  It  is  the  common  method 
of  the  German  schoolmaster  in  teaching  geography  and  can,  I 
believe,  be  made  of  great  use  in  our  own  schools  of  country,  town, 
and  city. 


The  School  Excursion  and  the  School  Museum. 


The  following  brief  list  suggests  some  of  the  possible  school 
excursions:  school  yard  and  roadside  after  a  rain,  creek  or  river 
with  its  basin  and  divides,  pond  or  lake,  cliff,  hills,  grove  or  woods, 
wheat  field,  corn  field,  grist-mill,  grain  elevator,  market  gardens, 
saw-mill,  lumber  yard,  planing  mill,  brick-yard,  park,  courthouse, 
tower  of  schoolhouse,  gravel  pit,  stone  quarry,  blacksmith  shop,  car- 
penter shop,  tin  shop,  fruit  store,  department  store,  foundry,  coal 
mine,  telegraph  office,  electric  light  works,  water  works,  gas  works, 
dairy,  commission  houses. 

THE  SCHOOL  MUSEUM. 

While  lessons  concerning  the  local  physical  features,  local  in- 
dustries and  home  products  can  be  treated  first  hand  by  means  of 
the  excursion,  it  is  not  possible  to  study  by  the  same  means  the 
rubber  industry  of  the  Amazon  basin,  the  cocoanut  of  the  islands 
of  the  sea,  the  cork  oak  of  Spain,  the  cotton  fields  of  the  south,  the 
manufactories  of  New  England  and  a  long  list  of  the  topics  which 
lie  within  the  field  of  geography. 

If  the  pupil  is  to  obtain  first-hand  knowledge  about  things 
foreign  to  his  own  neighborhood,  the  thing  must  be  brought  to  the 
pupil.     This  can  be  accomplished  by  means  of  the  school  museum. 

I  shall  consider  the  school  museum  as  I  have  considered  the 
school  excursion,  from  the  standpoint  of  its  actual  use  in  the 
schoolroom.  This  brings  me  to  speak  of  the  organization  and  work 
of  the  Chicago  Bureau  of  Geography,  which  at  the  opening  of  the 
school  year  in  September,  1903,  was  furnishing  sixty  schools  with 
small  traveling  museums  each  carried  in  a  single  box,  usually  an 
egg-crate  box,  containing  specimens,  pictures  and  printed  articles 
concerning  some  one  particular  topic  in  the  course  of  study  in 
geography. 

The  Bureau  of  Geography  was  organized  by  forty  principals 
of  the  Chicago  schools  for  the  purpose  of  collecting,  installing,  and 
circulating  illustrative  material  among  the  schools.  Each  school 
represented  paid  an  annual  fee  of  $10.00,  which  was  later  reduced 


10  The  Normal  School  Quarterly. 

to  $5.00.  This  money  has  been  spent  almost  entirely  for  material 
with  which  to  install  the  collections.  The  raw  material  has  been 
donated  largely  by  the  Field  Columbian  Museum,  wholesale  firms, 
and  large  business  houses  in  Chicago  and  elsewhere.  The  labor 
of  arranging  the  collections  has  been  mainly  volunteer  work.  Mr. 
Eichard  Waterman,  who  first  outlined  the  plan  of  the  Bureau,  has 
done  most  of  the  work  in  the  preparation  of  the  material  for  the 
collections. 

In  September,  1903,  the  Bureau  had  one  hundred  and  ten  trav- 
eling museums  representing  forty-five  different  subjects.  Some  of 
the  most  valued  museums  have  been  duplicated  so  that  all  schools 
may  have  the  use  of  one  during  the  year. 

Each  museum  or  collection  consists  of  three  things : 

1.  A  series  of  specimens  as  nearly  complete  as  could  be  ob- 
tained to  show  the  product  in  its  various  stages  of  manufacture 
from  raw  material  to  finished  product.  Each  specimen  is  care- 
fully installed,  numbered,  labeled  and  catalogued.  Whenever  the 
size  and  shape  of  the  specimen  permits,  it  is  placed  in  a  wide- 
mouthed  bottle  of  standard  size  and  corked.  These  bottles  are 
placed  in  a  strong  pasteboard  box  made  to  order,  and  partitioned 
into  twelve  compartments  each  of  which  holds  a  bottle.  If  the 
specimen  is  larger  it  is  placed  in  a  pasteboard  box  without  parti- 
tions. 

2.  Pictures  on  strong  cardboard,  ten  inches  by  twelve  inches. 
The  pictures  representing  a  single  topic  are  placed  in  a  pasteboard 
box  made  to  hold  cards  of  this  size.  They  accompany  the  speci- 
mens. 

3.  Printed  articles  which  will  aid  in  the  interpretation  of  the 
specimens.  These  may  be  books,  parts  of  books  divided  and  bound 
with  manila  sheets  into  pamphlets,  government  reports  on  a  par- 
ticular subject,  selected  material  from  government  reports  copied 
by  typewriter  and  bound  in  manila  covers,  magazine  articles  sepa- 
rated and  bound  textbooks  and  geographical  readers  cut  up  and 


The  School  Excursion  and  The  School  Museum.  11 

arranged  by  topics  and  the  material  on  each  topic  bound  separately. 
All  the  printed  matter  on  the  same  subject  is  brought  together  and 
placed  in  a  strong  pasteboard  box  of  convenient  size. 

These  boxes  of  specimens,  pictures  and  printed  articles,  accom- 
panied by  a  complete  typewritten  catalog  of  the  collections  are 
placed  inside  a  wooden  box,  the  "egg  crate,"  and  carried  from 
school  to  school  during  the  year.  A  school  may  keep  a  collection 
for  one  or  two  weeks.  At  the  end  of  this  time  the  collection  is 
exchanged  for  another. 

Two  objections  are  strongly  urged  by  some  principals  and 
teachers  against  the  use  of  the  same  collections  by  many  different 
schools.  In  the  first  place  it  is  not  possible  to  have  each  collection 
at  the  time  when  the  topic  is  being  treated  in  the  regular  course  of 
study.  In  the  second  place,  it  is  urged  that  it  would  be  better  for 
each  school  to  build  its  own  museum.  I  believe  that  those  who 
offer  these  objections  to  the  traveling  school  museum  would  not  do 
so  after  using  thirty  or  forty  of  its  collections  during  a  single  year. 

If  the  collection  is  studied  before  the  topic  has  been  reached 
in  the  regular  course  of  study  consider  how  valuable  it  is  for  the 
class  to  have  obtained  the  first-hand  knowledge  that  comes  from  a 
study  of  things  at  short  range  as  the  basis  of  the  interpretation  of 
the  text  when  the  topic  is  treated  more  fully  later  in  the  year.  If 
the  collection  chances  along  while  working  on  the  topic  well  and 
good.  The  study  of  schoolbook  and  museum  go  hand  in  hand  each 
to  reinforce  the  knowledge  and  interpretation  of  the  other.  If  the 
topic  has  been  previously  studied  what  could  afford  so  good  a 
review  as  an  examination  of  one  of  these  collections  ? 

To  illustrate :  A  collection  consists  of  raw  cotton,  ginned  cot- 
ton, cotton  in  various  stages  of  spinning,  cotton  fabrics  (ging- 
hams, calicoes,  finer  cotton  cloth,  canvas) ,  whole  cotton-seed,crushed 
cotton-seed,  cotton-seed  oil,  and  cotton-seed  cake.  These  specimens 
are  accompanied  by  numerous  pictures  of  the  cotton  plantation,  cot- 
ton shipping  and  manufacture,  in  addition  to  much  reading  mat- 
ter not  only  for  the  teacher  but  within  the  ability  of  the  pupils. 


12  The  Normal  School  Quarterly. 

If  such  material  is  used  for  a  single  class  period  weeks  before 
cotton  is  studied  in  the  course,  the  time  is  well  spent  as  a  prepara- 
tion for  future  study.  If  such  a  collection  can  be  examined  months 
after  the  class  have  studied  cotton  and  passed  examinations  on  the 
same,  how  quickly  will  some  vague  and  indefinite  idea  come  out 
clearly  and  distinctly  ever  to  be  remembered  with  a  joy  unknown 
to  the  pupil  who  gleans  ideas  for  the  purpose  of  making  practical 
use  of  them  on  examination  day  only  ? 

The  financial  means  and  the  labor  necessary  to  build  and  main- 
tain a  satisfactory  museum  are  not  at  the  command  of  each  school. 
Material  to  be  used  by  a  system  of  schools  can  be  much  more  read- 
ily obtained  by  request  than  for  a  single  school.  As  soon  as  the 
authorities  of  the  Field  Columbian  Museum  and  the  heads  of  large 
business  houses  understood  that  the  material  desired  is  to  be  made 
available  to  thousands  of  pupils  they  respond  most  heartily  and 
generously.  They  could  not  do  so  for  250  individual  schools  be- 
longing to  the  same  system.  Co-operation  is  as  valuable  in  the 
building  and  use  of  the  school  museum  as  in  other  lines  of  human 
activity. 

It  is  important  that  this  material  be  properly  used.  These 
collections  may  be  exhibited  to  the  class  by  the  principal  of  the 
school,  by  the  teacher,  or  by  pupils  of  the  upper  grades.  The  one 
giving  the  lesson  must  be  thoroly  familiar  with  the  collection,  and 
should  have  the  exercise  carefully  planned  in  order  to  make  the 
presentation  effective. 

I  recall  an  exercise  of  this  kind  in  which  a  seventh  year  teacher 
selected  three  boys  to  describe  the  cork  collection.  They  prepared 
their  parts  well.  They  liked  to  do  the  talking  because  they  had 
something  to  say.  The  lesson  was  appropriate  to  the  work  of  the 
sixth  and  seventh  years.  The  teachers  and  pupils  of  lower  grades 
learned  that  the  boys  were  giving  an  interesting  and  instructive 
exhibition  of  cork  and  its  manufactured  products,  and  requested 
that  it  be  given  in  other  classes.  The  collection  was  carried  to 
every  room  in  the  building,  about  eight  hundred  children  receiving 


The  School  Excursion  and  the  School  Museum.  13 

the  instruction.  I  saw  the  boys  giving  the  exercise  in  a  second 
year  room.  Each  told  in  clear  and  simple  language  his  part  of 
the  history  of  cork.  Then  each  one  took  a  number  of  the  speci- 
mens and  passing  along  the  aisle,  showed  and  explained  them  to 
interested  groups  of  children.  On  the  following  day  there  was  laid 
on  my  desk  a  written  exercise  from  these  second  year  children  on 
the  subject  of  cork.  They  gave  in  their  own  way  more  informa- 
tion about  cork  than  would  usually  be  given  in  a  sixth  year  class 
wholly  dependent  on  books  for  their  knowledge  of  the  subject. 

The  traveling  school  museum  has,  I  believe,  done  more  to  give 
the  teachers  and  pupils  of  Chicago  good  working  material  than  can 
possibly  be  given  by  an  equal  expenditure  for  books.  The  work 
has  been  of  such  benefit  to  the  schools  using  the  collections  that  re- 
cently on  the  recommendation  of  the  superintendent  of  schools  the 
board  of  education  has  assumed  the  financial  responsibility  for  the 
extension  of  the  work  to  all  the  schools.  The  work  is  now  under 
the  supervision  of  the  head  of  the  department  of  geography  in  the 
Chicago  Normal  School  and  an  assistant  has  been  employed  to  de- 
vote his  entire  time  to  the  building,  circulation,  and  care  of  the 
collections. 

Work  along  similar  lines  may  be  done  by  co-operation  among 
the  teachers  of  a  city,  county,  township  or  village.  A  movement 
of  this  kind  has  been  inaugurated  by  the  teachers  of  St.  Clair 
County,  Illinois.  At  a  meeting  of  the  St.  Clair  County  Teachers' 
Association  in  February,  1904,  a  committee  who  had  given  the 
matter  careful  consideration  recommended  to  the  association  that 
the  teachers  of  the  county  undertake  to  develop  a  Circulating  Geo- 
graphical Museum  for  use  among  the  country,  village,  and  city 
schools  of  the  county.  The  recommendation  was  favorably  re- 
ceived and  on  motion  of  the  county  superintendent  the  sum  of  fifty 
dollars  was  voted  from  funds  of  the  association  to  start  the  work. 
Nearly  all  of  this  money  will  be  used  in  buying  boxes,  bottles,  pic- 
ture mounting-cards  and  other  supplies  necessary  for  properly  in- 
stalling the  collections.     Each  school  of  the  county  has  been  asked 


14  The  Normal  School  Quarterly. 

to  contribute  a  small  sum  of  money  annually  for  the  extension  of 
the  work.  The  work  of  arranging  the  collections  for  use  in  the 
class  room  is  being  done  by  the  teachers  of  the  county  who  volun- 
teer their  services,  and  by  a  student  from  S.t.  Clair  County  in  the 
Illinois  State  Normal  University.  This  student  works  under  the 
direction  of  the  writer.  He  gives  three  hours  daily  to  the  work 
and  is  paid  a  small  sum  for  his  services. 

The  following  list  is  given  as  suggestive  of  possible  collections : 
wheat,  corn,  rice,  nuts,  spices,  cocoanut,  coffee,  tea,  cocoa,  sugar, 
by-products  of  the  packing  house,  cotton,  flax,  manila  hemp,  rubber, 
tanning  materials,  leather,  wool,  silk,  sponge,  furs,  woods,  paper, 
cork,  iron,  copper,  gold,  silver,  coal  and  coke,  petroleum,  asphalt. 
Collections  may  also  be  made  to  illustrate  a  single  country  or 
region ;  e.  g.,  Mexico,  Central  America,  Peru,  Hawaii,  India,  South 
Africa,  the  Philippines. 

Correspondence  concerning  ways  and  means  of  introducing 
the  excursion  and  the  museum  more  largely  into  the  regular  work 
of  the  school  is  invited. 

If  desired  we  will  build  a  sample  traveling  museum  for  the 
cost  of  material  and  labor.  Such  a  collection  will  serve  as  a  test 
of  its  value,  be  suggestive  of  method  of  arrangement,  and  aid  in 
determining  whether  to  develop  the  museum  on  a  larger  scale. 


The  School  Excursion  and  the  School  Museum.  15 


The  Illinois  State  Normal  University 


Offers  superior  facilities  for  the  training  of  teachers. 
Its  equipment  includes — 

A  library  of  15,000  volumes  and  4,500  pamphlets,    v 

Physical, chemical,  biological,  and  geographical  labora- 
tories supplied  with  new  apparatus, 

A  shop  for  manual  training, 

A  school  garden  of  two  and  one-half  acres, 

A  well  equipped  gymnasium, 

A  campus  of  fifty-seven  acres  with  every  advantage 
for  athletic  games. 

Its  faculty  includes  thirty-two  teachers,  nine  of  them 
training  teachers. 

Three  programs  of  study  are  provided: 

A  two-year  program  for  graduates  of  superior  high 
schools, 

A  three-year  program  for  graduates  of  village  high 
schools, 

A  four-year  program  for  students  needing  longer 
academic  preparation. 

The  regular  programs  all  include  a  review  of  the  com- 
mon branches,  five  terms  of  psychology  and  pedagogy, 
three  terms  of  practice  teaching,  and  such  advanced  courses 
as  may  be  needed. 

Elective  substitutes  are  provided  for  students  prepar- 
ing for  special  work. 


16  The  Normal  School  Quarterly. 


Summer  Session,  1904. 


The  summer  session  of  the  Illinois  State  Normal  Uni- 
versity consists  of  two  terms  of  six  weeks  each,  beginning 
June  G  and  July  18. 

Twenty-nine  instructors  have  been  secured  for  the  first 
term,  twelve  for  the  second. 

Twenty-seven  courses  are  offered.  Most  of  these  are 
the  regular  twelve-week  courses.  In  these  students  recite 
twice  a  day.  There  are  several  extra  courses  offered  in 
Manual  Training,  Industrial  Art,  Drawing,  Vocal  Music, 
and  Nature  Study. 

The  primary  department  of  the  training  school  will  be 
in  session  during  the  first  term. 

Tuition  is  free  to  all  expecting  to  teach  in  the  schools 
of  Illinois.  Others  are  charged  five  dollars  per  term.  The 
registration  fee  is  one  dollar. 

Board  and  room  can  be  had  at  from  three  to  four  dol- 
lars per  week. 

The  railroads  of  the  Western  Passenger  Association 
have  announced  a  rate  of  one  and  a  third  fare  for  the  round 
trip  on  the  certificate  plan.  A  certificate  must  be  ob- 
tained at  each  point  where  a  ticket  is  bought  en  route  to 
Normal. 

For  further  information,  address 

DAVID  FELMLEY,  President, 

Normal,  Illinois. 


3  0112105727447 


Pantagraph 
Ptg.  &  Sta.  Co. 
Hloomiq&l  on,  111, 


